Rebecca Gibson |
This article was originally published in the Summer 2019 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
According to Right Scale, 59% of enterprises were already using between two and six different cloud environments in 2018.
“Most enterprises have aggregated their largest applications on one main cloud platform and gradually distributed remaining workloads across multiple cloud platforms and on-premises environments,” says Jelle Frank van der Zwet, director of IT Service Providers at Interxion. “But these hybrid and multi-cloud environments are complex and challenging to manage. As we highlight in our Helping your customers future-proof digital transformation guide, now is the time for service providers to help them optimise these environments.”
To meet the need for enhanced performance, security and flexibility, many service providers are turning to carrier- and cloud-neutral colocation data centres, like Interxion.
“Interxion’s data centres are ideal for enterprises that want to colocate public cloud environments with their own private IT systems,” says van der Zwet. “We can provide a scalable and secure alternative to organisations investing in their own data centres and ensure better quality and performance.”
Interxion’s automated Cloud Connect platform makes it easy for service providers to offer customers private, high-performance virtual local area network connections to multiple cloud platforms via a single physical connection point.
“Our Cloud Connect solution gives service providers the bandwidth to perform cloud migrations and enables them to scale connectivity and accommodate additional workloads without needing to provision extra physical connections,” says van der Zwet. “This allows them to get existing customers up and running quickly, or sign up new customers.”
UK-based digital managed service provider TIG, for example, has colocated its private cloud infrastructure at Interxion’s London campus for over four years. It also uses Cloud Connect to simplify connectivity to Microsoft Azure for its customers. “Cloud Connect is fully integrated with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, so TIG can use its multitenant solution to spin up virtual connections between its customers’ private networks and Microsoft Azure within 60 seconds,” says van der Zwet.
Once IT service providers have moved an enterprise’s applications to the cloud, they can use Interxion’s Key Guardian to encrypt them. Key Guardian securely stores the encryption keys in a dedicated hardware security module outside of, but close to, the cloud to ensure regulatory compliance.
“Most cloud providers offer a security service, but once you have workloads in multiple clouds or infrastructure in multiple locations, security becomes more difficult,” explains van der Zwet. “Interxion’s colocation, Cloud Connect and Key Guardian services offer a highly efficient and cost-effective way to manage and protect workloads distributed across multiple cloud platforms or a hybrid environment.”
Interxion will be attending Microsoft Inspire on 14-18 July. Find out more about the event.